Aggregate Industries have won a Highways England Award for its pioneering new vehicle auto-braking system.

As the overall winner in the Chairman’s Award for Excellence in Safety category, Aggregate Industries’ SmartBrake system was commended for its potential to drive improvements in behavioural safety culture and raise safety performance in the highways sector.

SmartBrake works to eliminate workplace transport incidents by utilising an Auto-braking Radar System (ARS) linked to a forward-facing/rear camera detection system.

It uses low-energy microwaves emitted from the vehicle to automatically activate the vehicle’s braking system if anything is detected within a defined exclusion zone.

The system alerts the driver and sends a downloadable video footage clip of the exclusion zone to a designated person as soon as the auto-braking system is activated or deactivated.

This enables the designated person to gain an immediate real-time assessment of the scenario, the footage can also be used for investigative and training purposes to support workforce engagement and improve behavioural safety culture.

Since its installation, there have been zero reversing incidents reported on sites where SmartBrake has been deployed.